Information on Handling of Public Complaints through ¡°12369¡± Environmental Complaint Hotline of MEP in April 2013

2013-07-24

Article type: Translated

In order to effectively solve environmental problems affecting public health, urge enterprises to strictly fulfill their obligations as the main body responsible for environmental safety, elevate governments' consciousness of assuming their responsibilities for environmental safety supervision, step up efforts in solving pollution problems and accept supervision from the entire society, MEP recently, on China Environment News, released information on public complaints accepted through the "010-12369" environmental complaint hotline of MEP in the first three months of 2013. This initiative has achieved good social effects.

In April 2013, the "010-12369" environmental complaint hotline of MEP accepted a total of 149 public complaints which were then assigned to various local environmental protection departments to investigate and handle. In terms of the geographical distribution of the complaints, the numbers of complaints from Hebei (18), Jiangsu (18), Shandong (15) and Henan (11) provinces topped the country.

Region

Number of complaints

Hebei

18

Jiangsu

18

Shandong

15

Henan

11

Inner Mongolia

8

Hubei

8

Guangdong

8

Shanxi

8

Anhui

6

Jiangxi

6

Hunan

6

Heilongjiang

5

Liaoning

5

Shanxi

4

Shanghai

3

Zhejiang

3

Jilin

3

Fujian

3

Gansu

3

Sichuan

2

Tianjin

2

Guangxi

2

Xinjiang

1

Yunnan

1

Total

149

According to the results of the investigation and handling by local environmental protection departments, the number of complaints involving environmental violations are 116, accounting for 77.9% of the total complaints accepted, whereas environmental problems filed in 33 complaint cases are not identified. Among those environmental pollution cases, 72 are air pollution related, 23 are water pollution related, 25 are noise pollution related, 1 is solid wastes related and 42 are involving project approval. Among these complaints, stench and odor pollution are the most reported. Local environmental protection departments have accordingly adopted measures to handle these environmental violations. Among those offenders, 31 were suspended for rectification, 33 were assigned deadlines for rectification, 17 were banned or shut down, 12 were relocated, 14were required to reapply for EIA, 12 were imposed financial penalties, and 5 were transferred to relevant departments. At present, these measures have been well implemented.

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